Cute Hello Kitty worshipping girls should not sound like Emilie Bresson of Monarch, at least not in the preconceived world I live in. Monarch's Emilie sounds like a cute Hello Kitty girl on a bad acid trap. Totally fearful, psychotic and warped, so with a voice that cuts right through your soul. I envision a mutated creature with hellish red eyes. Her vocals are the perfect accompaniment to Monarch's extreme doom which often borders on drone. It's hellish, barbaric as in the sickest thoughts of Lovecraft. Not for the faint hearted. Even though 'Omens' clocks in at barely 36 minutes you're left with the feeling of having been mauled for hours. Luckily 'Omens' is of the quality we used to associate with Monarch and not like what they presented on last year's 'Sortilège' EP which sounded as a boring long intro. So, forget about that release as soon as possible and buy 'Omens' in order to undergo the true Monarch.

Cute Hello Kitty worshipping girls should not sound like Emilie Bresson of Monarch, at least not in the preconceived world I live in. Monarch's Emilie sounds like a cute Hello Kitty girl on a bad acid trap. Totally fearful, psychotic and warped, so with a voice that cuts right through your soul. I envision a mutated creature with hellish red eyes. Her vocals are the perfect accompaniment to Monarch's extreme doom which often borders on drone. It's hellish, barbaric as in the sickest thoughts of Lovecraft. Not for the faint hearted. Even though 'Omens' clocks in at barely 36 minutes you're left with the feeling of having been mauled for hours. Luckily 'Omens' is of the quality we used to associate with Monarch and not like what they presented on last year's 'Sortilège' EP which sounded as a boring long intro. So, forget about that release as soon as possible and buy 'Omens' in order to undergo the true Monarch.

That doesn't sound like your words. Or is that your review for Lords of Metal?

Cute Hello Kitty worshipping girls should not sound like Emilie Bresson of Monarch, at least not in the preconceived world I live in. Monarch's Emilie sounds like a cute Hello Kitty girl on a bad acid trap. Totally fearful, psychotic and warped, so with a voice that cuts right through your soul. I envision a mutated creature with hellish red eyes. Her vocals are the perfect accompaniment to Monarch's extreme doom which often borders on drone. It's hellish, barbaric as in the sickest thoughts of Lovecraft. Not for the faint hearted. Even though 'Omens' clocks in at barely 36 minutes you're left with the feeling of having been mauled for hours. Luckily 'Omens' is of the quality we used to associate with Monarch and not like what they presented on last year's 'Sortilège' EP which sounded as a boring long intro. So, forget about that release as soon as possible and buy 'Omens' in order to undergo the true Monarch.

That doesn't sound like your words. Or is that your review for Lords of Metal?

My half-assed RYM review; just wanted to give people some idea what it's all about, since nobody had reviewed it:

"Drone metal can be tricky to pull off. In a genre where texture supersedes structure, it's easy to forgo all substance in favor of aesthetic. I daresay even the poster boys Sunn O))) have more shock value than artistic value. Fortunately, Monarch! stay a bit more on the musical side of the drone doom spectrum.

Monarch! trust in filthy fuzz to weave a malicious atmosphere. They're more than an exercise in drone techniques though, with pounding drums setting the pace for actual riffs and verses, delivered in manic shrieks. If you're looking for a quick reference point to what the band sounds like, Khanate is a good comparison. Haunting female vocals add a hook that's relatively easy to latch onto and create an eerie contrast with the shrill noise of the record.

The album consists of two long metal tracks and a softer drone interlude. There's no obvious progression here: the female vocals play a little larger role in the last track, but they're both massive bursts of violence and hate at a glacial pace. It's repetitive to an extent, but all the tracks actually move through diverse parts. The album is hardly original or ambitious, but it's executed very well. The band nails down the harsh drone metal aesthetic and manages to combine it with nice songwriting.

Omens is the first time I hear these guys, so I can't say if they've improved or not. I can say that it's an enthralling 36 minutes well worth sitting through multiple times, if you're at all into the ugly, the obscure and the uninviting in music. For fans of both ambient drone and extreme metal, it's a solid album to lose your mental health to.

When I first heard this album I did not know what to make of it, but now after a handful of playthroughs, it is really starting to grow on me. By being in the right mood and focusing entirely on the music by shutting everything else out, I am finally able to see and appreciate Omens in a different way.

It is a fairly short but intense experience filled with filthy droning soundscapes that are accompanied by tortured and truely haunting vocals. The build up of the last song is worth a special mention when you are lured into a false sense of security by the alluring voice in the first half after which it gets progressively more chaotic until finally all hell breaks loose. Good stuff.

I wish that the album would have lasted longer because letting myself get completely engulfed in the dense atmosphere it conveys really is something special.